Past and Current Management Approaches at Kroger Co.
David Dillon has been CEO of the Kroger Co. since 2003 and is the 10th CEO in Kroger’s 130-year history. Joseph B. Hall held the CEO position from 1946 until 1964. Hall started with Kroger as a real estate manager in 1931 and later moved onto merchandising. His accomplishments as CEO was taking Kroger from a collection of 1,430 small, of mom-and-pop style corner stores into a unified chain, introducing advances in private label, product manufacturing and the company’s distinctive blue-and-white logo. Like todays manager, Hall was concerned with developing a close relationship with Kroger’s shoppers. Halls approach to gain the knowledge needed was that he and his fellow executives would actually visit shoppers in their homes to discuss their needs and concerns as part of a program known as “Kroger Calls”. Today Kroger’s CEO can simply utilize data and purchase history stored on a customer’s loyalty card to tailor their marketing strategy (Kroger CEOs, Past and Present, 2012). Halls creation of a modern day supermarket company nearly quadrupled sales to $2.3 billion.
Recently retired in January 2014, CEO Dave Dillon, said it best in his speech to an audience of Kansas City professionals, “The minute that you think you have arrived, and you’re at the top of the game and you don’t need to improve anymore, that’s when you’re gonna go down” (KUBusiness, 2013).
Kroger’s Organizational Structure
I would describe Kroger as a vertical functional structure in that it’s Senior Management and decision-making comes from the top and is now centralized at their corporate offices. Kroger’s functional structure is a strong vertical design of information flowing up and down the ve...
... middle of paper ...
...
South University Online. (2013). MGT2037: Principles of management: Week 3: Organizational Structure. Retrieved fromhttp://myeclassonline.com
KUBusiness. (2013, April 10). Leadership: Is Anyone Following You? (Video file). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zkSLfyp2sA
Monk, D. (wcpo). (2013, June 27). David Dillon Q&A (Video File). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfSIf40tdy4
Jay, J. (2012). Strategic Leadership Review, Volume 2, Issue 1. In Scholasticahq. Retrieved Janurary 26, 2013, from https://scholasticahq.com/supporting_files/397/attachment_versions/394.
Kroger CEOs, Past and Present. (2012). SN: Supermarket News, Vol. 60(49), p24. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=84011728&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Kroger Company is one of the largest supermarket retailers across the United States. Founded in 1883, Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open his first grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. (Kroger, 2011). Barney was quite proud. He was the first grocer ever to have a bakery, to sell meat, and to sell other groceries all in one store. From the start, Barney operated his business with a simple motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” (Kroger, 2011). Today, one hundred and twenty-eight years later, the Kroger Company is still following Barney’s motto.
When Jim Kilts showed up at Gillette in 2001, the first outsider to run the Boston-based company in more than 70 years, he found a business with great brands losing market share. Its acquisitions of Duracell and Braun were not delivering. Sales and earnings were flat, the company had missed its earnings estimates for 15 straight quarters, the stock had plummeted, and Wall Street had lost patience. Yet two-thirds of the top managers were getting top ratings. People were being rewarded for effort; performance, under Mr. Kilts regime, became the new measure.
Sears has created a “Financial Crisis” when hedge fund manager Edward Lampert took over control of the company. The mentality of investors of a CFO is an important viewpoint during crisis because it can help streamline process and reduce cost. Retail experience should be dominant the retail in order to feel the pulse of the consumer desires and to determine proper margin levels while eliminating inefficiencies in the organization. According to Marina Strauss of the Globe and Mail, “a sweeping change will be required to improve the retailer’s outlook”. She quoted the (CEO of Sears-Canada) Mr. McDonald saying in a memo that “Our store are too difficult to shop in. We have inconsistent execution…We do not offer the right product in the right market” (STRAUSS M., 2011).
The retail stores of JC Penney and Sears have face headlines of “Which is Worst: JCP or Sears?” The end maybe near for both companies (Andersen2014). The customers look at the employees like their idiots. The public believes that poor management is the reason for the down fall of these companies. Eddie Lambert and Ron Johnson are the CEO’s of being credited to running these companies with wrong management strategies (Andersen 2014). Ron Johnson who is now the former CEO was highly qualified with his retail instincts tried to run the store like a retail boutique. He never took the time to consult a survey on what the consumer’s thought were and after two years he jeopardized the company (Andersen 2014). Whereas the CEO Eddie Lambert of Sears
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the effectiveness of the Target Stores supply chain. Target was founded in 1902 by George Draper Dayton who after partnering with the owner of Goodfellow Dry Goods Company for a year decided he wanted to have more involvement, so he purchased Goodfellows renaming it Dayton Dry Goods Company. After purchasing the store Mr. Dayton remained in management until the time of his death in 1938. By this time the store had seen many changes including a name change in 1911 changing from Dayton Dry Goods Company to The Dayton Company, as well as an addition of the Dayton Foundation in 1918. After Mr. Dayton’s death the family continued managing the business until 1983 in which the last two managing Dayton’s retired, ending 80 years of the Dayton’s family management (Target Corporation, 2014).
Management is a key to success, and Kmart needs proper management to help create a positive image that attracts more customers. Kmart’s disorderly management and bankruptcy caused many customers to shop with other retailers. According to Carr, Wal-Mart and Kmart were the same size in 1990. Since then, Kmart has grown far slower than its rival or the industry. Once one of the largest discount retailers, Kmart filed for the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcy for discount retailing in the United States (2002). Struggling to find the right type of management has been one of Kmart’s problems that ultimately helped lead the company to its downfall. Kmart is constantly changing CEO’s, and thus focuses. Kmart has had four different CEO’s since 2000, all with different management objectives.
Yahoo Finance. "The Kroger Co. (KR)." Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance, N.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. .
Kroger was also an inventor, of food products. What was born in his mother’s kitchen, of just a tangy German sauerkraut has grown into over 30 facilities that manufacture the Kroger brand. Just another example this company meeting its objective to serve and please its customer base. Kroger understood from the very beginning, the value of the customer base, which according to the text Managing Customer Relationships is simply put, is to get, keep, and grow customers and is the very objective of the Kroger brand. Mr. Kroger was a natural born leader and servant and built this concept into the very framework of the company. Every step he took, focused on this premise, and soon he built a successful model that many other merchants fervently attempted to duplicate. The modern supermarket owes it roots to this early adventure in
Kroger Timeline. (2013). In Progressive Grocer, 92(10), 30-52. Retrieved January 28, 2014. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/ehost/detail?sid=e0985541-de1c-4587-93a3-fa8be9bac40f%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=127&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=91527502
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Retrieved from http://clarkmussman.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/leadership-theory-and-practice.pdf
Its functional structure is organized with many executive vice presidents reporting to the CEO and additional functions representing a major component of the Target value chain such as a store, design, manufacturing, sales and marketing, logistics, and customer service. Each functional unit is supervised by a functional chain of command that focuses on their area of responsibility. This way CEO provides direction and ensures that the activities of the functional managers are coordinated and integrated across Target
1. Ken Lay served as CEO and chairman and Jeffrey Skilling also served as CEO. They both were responsible for planning, organizing, controlling and leading the company. They set goals for the company and organized how they would be achieved. Kay’s role was as the figurehead and the leader. He also served as the spokesperson for the company and made many of the decision on the future of the company. As CEO’s they both possessed effective communication skills, where decisive, which was evidenced by their vision for the company and refusal to admit wrong even at the end, and visionary. Throughout Lay’s tenor the company continued to grow and prosper at a fast pace.
The key issues for K-Mart strategies are finding the right cost level for an opportunity to be aggressive, and differentiating the product for consumer in terms of different consumer and different intangible product attributes. K-Mart and Sears should be combined with a new overall corporate competitive strategy using a cost focus. This may turn out to be the only sensible strategy, and the one which best describes the strategy adopted. Strategies of cost leadership and product differentiation are often described as if they were mutually exclusive you can either pursue one or the other, but not both.
"Leadership in Organizational Settings." The Dynamics of Leading Organizations and People. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 288-301. Print.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.